Diet is the treatment of choice for insulin-independent diabetics but adherence to diet and comprehension of food exchanges by diabetics are poor. The research proposed will test the hypothesis that a nutrient-based education program for diabetics will result in better dietary adherence and will lower diet-related risk factors. The specific aims are to: 1) develop a Diet Manual in which the amounts of energy, total fat, saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, cholesterol, total sugar, fiber, sodium, and selected key nutrients in a wide variety of foods are expressed in standardized nutri-units such that 20 units of each will represent the daily intake; 2) integrate the above into a patient educational program in a three workshop format that will include information on diet and diabetes and instructions on use of the method; 3) evaluate the program by teaching the nutrient method (NSM) and the existing diet method based on exchange groups (EGM) to insulin-independent diabetics and measuring knowledge about food composition and the diet treatment of diabetics, adherence to the diet, body weight and skinfold measures, plasma glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides, hemoglobin A1C urinary sodium and glucose, and blood pressure; and 4) demonstrate the portability of the program by teaching it to clinical care teams in four other hospitals and evaluating the effectiveness of their use of the program as described above. The potential health implications of the proposed research are considerable. Diabetes may occur in one of five Americans born today. Obesity, atherosclerosis, and hypertension are common complications of the most common insulin-independent form of diabetes. Heart disease accounts for 75 percent of all deaths among diabetics. Diet is the treatment of choice, but dietary adherence is poor. The proposed method not only has the potential to increase the effectiveness of diet treatment of diabetes, but also the treatment of patients at risk for heart disease, hypertension, obesity, and breast or colon cancer. In addition, it is suggested that the method or a simpler version of it would be useful in helping people interested in a "prudent diet" learn how to plan and evaluate menus appropriate for such a diet.